1. The Field of the Invention
The invention relates to devices, methods, and systems for the reliable delivery of documents. Specifically, the invention relates to devices, methods, and systems for the reliable delivery of documents to users at kiosks or other automated devices.
2. The Relevant Art
Kiosks have become an integral part of many services provided in today's marketplace. The use of kiosks provides increased efficiency, lower cost, better service, lower requirements for human labor, and the like. Many companies use kiosks to provide services such as automated telling, self-service checkout at grocery stores, gift registries, information booths, ticket dispensers, telephone and internet access, and the like.
In addition to increased efficiency, kiosks may also provide additional convenience and faster service by taking advantage of computer automation. In many instances, a kiosk or other automated device is significantly more reliable and less error prone than a human attendant. For example, various studies in the financial industry have shown that automated teller machines produce significantly fewer errors than human tellers. Kiosks may also provide services to people at remote locations where traditional services are unavailable.
Kiosks are often placed at locations where a user is free to operate the kiosk with little supervision or visibility from a merchant. Thus, good kiosk design requires that a unit be as reliable as possible. The components of a kiosk must be very dependable and every possible means of operator-induced failures must be eliminated where possible.
Printers in kiosks are particularly vulnerable to operator-induced failures. A common instance of failure occurs when a user of a kiosk attempts to retrieve a receipt or other document before the printing is complete, thereby causing a paper jam. Several kiosk printer manufacturers have addressed this mode of failure by designing a mechanism known as a presenter.
A presenter protects a printer from hostile or untrained users and allows a printer to complete printing of a document before a user of a kiosk can retrieve it. When printing is complete, the document is fed to the presenter. The presenter then proceeds to deliver the document to the user very rapidly, providing very little time or reason to retrieve the document before it is fully available.
Several different methods are used in presenter mechanisms to accumulate the printed document from the printer, before presenting the document to a user. Some mechanisms allow a document to loop before presentation, while others use methods for coiling a document before presentation. Nevertheless, the majority of known methods require that a document be pushed a significant distance before a loop or coil is created.
For example, one prior art method uses a “looping” approach. This approach requires that a document be pushed across a “bridge” until a leading end of the document is stopped. Once the document has fully spanned the “bridge,” additional document length is accommodated by allowing the document to buckle.
Another prior art method uses a “coiling” approach. In this approach, a document is pushed into a coiling cage. When printing of the document is complete, an entrance to the cage is flipped to a position opposite the exit slot of the enclosure where the feed is reversed and the document is presented to the customer.
Those skilled in printer design understand that a printer mechanism that pushes a document is far less reliable than one that does not push a document. Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a document delivery device that greatly reduces the distance that a document is pushed. Thus, a document delivery device is described herein that is directed to improving the reliability of a kiosk or other automated device designed to deliver documents.
Another type of presenter 10 shown in FIG. 1 diverts a receipt 11 or other document 11 in a downward direction, without looping, into an enclosure 14. In order to present the document 11 to a user, the presenter reverses the direction of the document 11 to feed the document past a flap diverter 12. This action directs the document 11 out of the enclosure 14.
The mechanism 10 allows a receipt 11 or other document 11 to be partially extended or completely ejected as needed according to the application. Although the mechanism 10 is simple in design and inexpensive to manufacture, it suffers from several significant reliability problems.
First, the flap diverter 12 is subject to document snags. These snags may be caused by various document characteristics, such as an uneven cut or wrinkles. Furthermore, if a document 11 is thin, or the humidity is high, the document may be exposed to buckling or jamming as it is pushed or diverted by the flap 12, or pushed around the curves 16, 18. One manufacturer, in particular, has attempted to minimize these exposures by ensuring that the flap 12 is thin and flexible. However, making the flap 12 thin and flexible exposes the flap 12 to wear and damage.
Since the flap 12 must be extremely smooth to prevent snagging of the leading edge of a document 11, the flap 12 may be secured with adhesive. This adhesive is exposed to failure caused by degradation of the operating environment. Another exposure occurs as the document 11 is fed down into the retention location 14. During this procedure, only gravity is used to ensure that the document 11 drops freely into the retention location 14. Static electricity or some other obstruction can cause a document to be distorted such that it may jam during the presentation process. Thus, another object of the present invention is to maintain control of the document 11 in the retention location 14, thereby greatly reducing some of the previously mentioned problems.
What is needed is a document delivery device that reduces document snags and jams by avoiding, as much as possible, “pushing” of a document, and by maintaining stricter control thereof.
What is further needed is a document delivery device that is simple in design, has a minimum number of moving parts, and uses more reliable mechanisms for document delivery.
What is further needed is a document delivery device that can accommodate documents of various lengths, while avoiding problems associated with “looping” or “coiling.”
What is further needed is a document delivery device that can release a document into a storage or waste receptacle when a user fails to retrieve the document.